Receiving a paycheck and realizing that it is less than your male co worker's paycheck is a continuous issue that us women face till this day. Despite all the efforts to obtain equal rights as men, sexual discrimination in the workforce is still a struggle. Throughout the decades, us women were stereotyped as ones who could only clean, cook, and take care of our children. Regardless of the government legislations and the prominence of equality, there is still sexual discrimination and inequality due to the fact that women and men do not have the same pay even with the same education and work experience in the same field.
Discrimination between the genders in the work field began during World War II, according to The New York Times article ” The Many Roles of Women in War: Sniper, Pilot, Death Camp Guard” written by Andrea N. Goldstein(2018). The wage and occupational discrimination began when the roles of women in the society started to change. As stated in the text, ” Displaying the role of women tells the story of the war itself: Everyone participated, and often in jobs that were once unheard-of for women.”(Goldstein, 2018). When women began to engage and work with men or for men in the war, this was a considerably an immense change during this time. Women having the ability to start jobs that were traditionally done by men allowed the role of women to shift. The World War II time period allowed women's roles to go from being dependent on males and husbands to more independent. This accompanied society to begin to get out of the “a woman's place is in the kitchen” theory, even though most men did not approve of women working their jobs to substitute. Notwithstanding, women still continued to work to not only take the males occupational positions when they were not present but also to help and support in the war by enlisting. Regardless of the shift during this time, to this day sexism towards women still continues and women are not paid as equal as men. However, World War II had allowed everyone to benefit in one way or another from men fighting in war to women working to support their families back home. (Goldstein, 2018)
Based on Stephanie Coontz’s article “What We Really Miss About the 1950s”, “Veterans often came home to find that they had to elbow their way back into their families, with wives and children resisting their attempts to reassert domestic authority.”(p. 27) The veteran spouses’ incompetence to maintain the same roles and command within the household often contributed to disagreement of opinions and roles within the families. “Many women resented being fired from wartime jobs they had grown to enjoy.”(Coontz, 1997, p. 27). This led to altercations in the house since the wives requested the same amount of independence and authority they had when their husbands were not present. The inability to correctly communicate and agree on the next steps to take, created discomfort and despair in the household, which often contributed to a divorce in one in every three marriages (Coontz, 1997, p. 27). The divorces were not only due to the lack of well communication but also the idea of “Are you after a job or a man? You can’t have both.” perspective according to coontz’s article(p. 38). This perspective correctly expresses the idea that women are discriminated just because of their gender. Women were not identified as people who could balance a job and family so due to this they were treated poorly.
Getting treated poorly in a job does not only apply to physical or mental treatment; the paychecks of women were also treated poorly leading to a difference in pay between men and women employees.Based on research analysts and associates, Nikki Graf, Anna Brown and Eileen Patten’s research in 2018, “The narrowing but persistent, gender gap in pay” the gender gap began to lessen since 1980 however throughout the past 15 years the gender gap has remained the same. The gender wage gap becoming stable in the past 15 years promotes that the importance of men and women equality has decreased and the Americans have not improved in gender equality, in fact, society has not improved their view on women since 1990. This does not support the modern day view of equality and impartiality of each and every race and gender. According to the Pew Research Center “In 2017, women earned 82% of what men earned,”(Graf, Brown, Patten, 2018). This research expresses that as the media's pressure on the gender wage gap lessen the actions made to restore and equalize also decreased. The unequal percent of wage contradicts The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Within one of the Acts and legislations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is a declaration that supports the equality of the genders and makes it mandatory to give them both equal treatment. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights exactly states that “Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for the purpose of equal work.”. (UDHR, 1948) Moreover, declaration of equality was developed, printed and advocated approximately 70 years ago, in spite of, the pay rate for women nonetheless has not been equalized to the pay rate for men. Regardless of the Acts and Declarations, the inequality, wage gap, and sexism is yet ongoing to this day.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, this law orders equal pay for the equivalent amount of work by employees.”No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions,” (The Equal Pay Act, 1963) This amendment specifically states that it is illegal for employers to pay men and women unequal amount of wages or benefits for doing the same job.
Throughout roughly a century, the government has not been victorious with succeeding the most prominent idea of the constitution, declaration, and the majority of legislations which provides equalizing rights for both men and women. Regardless of the decisions and steps the government has taken, men and women have not been equal and the only way to actually cease this inequality to is to come up with reasonable consequences to enforce on businesses that do pay two employees with similar years of education and experience.
Throughout the years it has been portrayed that men and women have the same opportunities and can achieve any of their desires, however, how can one achieve such desires when the pay for men and women are not even equal. To have the same opportunities means to have the ability and choice to have the same job and get paid for doing the same things.